Help us escape Gaza

Hi All,

My name is Mohammed I am a British citizen of Palestinian heritage. My nephew Osid in Gaza is trying to raise money to escape with his family from the war in the Gaza Strip. I am launching this campaign on their behalf. All donations will go directly to Osid and his family. please support if you can, any amount, however small can help bring his family on a journey to safety.

Osid Alkourd's story in his own words

My name is Osid AlKourd, from the Gaza Strip. I live in the city of Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip. I am 23 years old. I graduated from the Islamic University in 2023. My major at the university is software development. Fortunately for me, when I graduated directly from university, I got a job as a software engineer in a local company in the Gaza Strip after obtaining my university degree. With this opportunity, I began my journey in life, where I started learning the German language because my dream is to travel and live in Germany and complete my master’s there. As you know, in order to obtain a study visa and travel to Germany, you must master the German language, and I actually started learning it when I graduated from university, and your bank account must contain an amount of no less than 10,000 euros, and I was seeking to collect this amount through my work as a software engineer.

But unfortunately, tragedy struck on October 7th. At the beginning and on the first day of the war, I said to myself, “This war will end soon and will not last long, and we will return to our normal lives.” But on the third day of the war, I was shocked by the martyrdom and killing of my aunt, her husband, and four of her sons who lived near us. Their house is not 30 meters away from us, and on the same night also some people I knew in our area were killed as a result of air strikes, and from that moment the most difficult days of the war began, and I began to realise that it would be a miracle if we emerged from this war unscathed. On the fifth day of the war, I was standing at the window of our house and thinking in complete darkness. Suddenly, an air strike was carried out with a missile weighing two tons of explosives on our neighbour's house, causing massive destruction in our area. I honestly don't know how I survived this raid. Thank God.

As the intense air raids continued on our area, water, electricity, and the Internet were cut off, and a large part of the furniture in our home was damaged. Knowing that the Israeli army said that the Deir al-Balah area was a safe area, but this was not the case. Imagine during 400 days there was no water in the taps!! There is no electricity to operate the washing machine!! There is no refrigerator to put food in!! there is no Internet !! Even if you want gas for cooking, you will need to wait at least two months to get one gas can, and sometimes you don't get it after all that waiting!! Imagine that during the 400 days you live in a state of extreme terror and fear, afraid that a missile will fall on you, and every night you wake up to the sound of air raids and the smell of smoke emanating from the missiles that fill the place. Imagine, during the 400 days we live every day. I see torn pieces and decomposing bodies, and I say to myself: Will my fate be like these martyrs?

From here I began to feel danger to our lives, and I began to feel that my dream was fading in light of this situation. I was a software engineer who aspired to travel and obtain a master’s degree in Germany, but now my goal is to secure a gallon of water and a bag of flour, and to obtain food aid due to the severe shortage of food and water in the Gaza Strip. In addition, all software companies in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, and all programmers are unemployed, so there is no financial liquidity.

Unfortunately, in light of this war, the prices of travel tickets to Egypt have increased. I don't really know why it is so high, but before the war the ticket price per person was £240, and now the ticket price exceeds £4000 per person. Can you imagine? We cannot cover any part of these costs, so I need your help to facilitate my and my family's exit from the Gaza Strip and save us from the genocidal war. I will go from Egypt to Germany and continue my journey in life and achieve my dreams. The border has been closed since for month now. I am waiting for it to reopen to start my journey.

Within two months, thanks to God, during the war and in the midst of genocide, I finished the first level of the German language, A1, and here I am about to finish the A2 level, even though there is no internet and no electricity in our area. I go to my friend’s house, who has internet, and I download Some videos and lessons in the German language. Despite the suffering and pain, we cling to our dreams.

My family members are

My father, Ashraf AlKourd, is 54 years old.

My mother, Hanan Nassar, 50 years old

My older brother, Oday AlKourd, is 25 years old

I am Osid AlKourd, 23 years old

My brother, Safwan AlKourd, 19 years old

My brother Mohab AlKourd, 10 years old.

My goal is to collect £12,000 to enable us to escape the genocide and help me travel to Germany to complete my education and my work as a software engineer.

By donating a small amount to me, perhaps you can save us from this genocide, escape from the Gaza Strip, and help me achieve my dream of traveling to Germany, completing my master’s degree, and working there as a software engineer. My dream was extinguished and destroyed by the current genocidal war, but I still cling to it despite all these wounds.